Mesa officials raising pay, nixing panel

Dec. 13—Mesa City Council introduced an ordinance last week that would boost pay for the city's elected officials and dissolve an independent commission that shared responsibility for setting compensation for council members.

Ordinance No. 5840, introduced and set for a hearing tomorrow, Dec. 11, hearing by a unanimous vote, would give Mesa's mayor and council members a 7% pay increase effective in 2025, and then automatically adjust pay every two years based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners or the step pay increases given to non-represented city employee groups.

Council pay would be raised based on the lower of the two.

The 7% increase for 2025 is based on the 4% and 3% step pay increases city employees received the last two years.

The mayor is currently paid $83,551 in total annual compensation and council members each receive $47,199 a year.

Both figures include a base salary plus monthly allowances for transportation and communication expenses.

A 2022 survey by the Arizona League of Cities and Towns showed that Mesa had competitive salaries for elected officials, higher than all other municipalities except Phoenix, which reported salaries of $88,000 and $61,000 for mayor and council members, respectively.

The state average in 2022 was $48,000 for mayor and $27,000 for council members.

A report prepared by City of Mesa staff stated that the one-time pay bump and proposed change to the process of setting council compensation would "ensure that Mesa remains competitive in attracting and retaining top talent for its elected officials" and remove "the politicization of pay" by relying on objective criteria.

As part of the reform, the city would disband the Independent Commission of Compensation for Elected Officials, created in 2012 to "establish fair and reasonable" compensation for city council.

Many municipalities across the country employ independent commissions to help set pay for a community's representatives to alleviate some of the awkwardness of council members potentially voting on their future pay.

The Mesa commission currently meets every three years and is tasked with creating a recommended compensation package, which the city council must accept or reject in whole.

The commission last met in 2021 and recommended a 3% increase in annual salary for the mayor and council members, which the council adopted.

The move to quash the independent commission came as a surprise to one of the commission members who served in 2021, businessman Rich Adams.

"I thought the commission was a fair and equitable way of dealing with what to pay our electeds," he said. "I always thought the process was a sound and appropriate one."

Former councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, who served on council when the commission was created, was also unaware of the proposed change.

He said in a text message that he felt the process "worked OK throughout the years."

In a way, the proposed killing of the commission may be a tribute to its work, as the new ordinance would enshrine the last commission recommendation as the basis for all future compensation adjustments.

In response to a request for information on who was consulted on the move to dissolve the commission, Director of Communications Ana Pereira issued a statement:

"As Mesa drew closer to starting the process of convening the Independent Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials, the City began looking at best practices and the changes that some of our neighboring municipalities and others across the state have implemented to offer their elected officials compensation commensurate with their service."

"We value the time and effort Mesa councilmembers put into serving their Districts and the City as a whole, and we need to make changes to continue to attract top-notch talent to serve in our Council," she wrote.

All four city council members who responded to a questionnaire sent to the mayor and council about the change said serving on the council was a full-time commitment — and all supported the inflation-adjusted approach for future increases.

Councilman Mark Freeman owns Freeman Farms, Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury did accounting for her family business until it was sold in 2020, Councilman Jenn Duff owns a sport fishing export business and Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia is self-employed.

"The schedule is extremely different every day and so you have to be very flexible," Spilsbury wrote of service on the council. "Every week is different but I easily spend 40 hours a week attending events, meetings and reviewing agenda items."

Heredia said that council service "often demands significant time due to meetings, events, stakeholder engagements and other obligations."

Though Mesa is on the higher end of compensation for elected officials in the region, the council members who responded to the Tribune agreed that if anything the current level of pay was too low — and may make public service prohibitive to many in the community.

"I do consider this position to be more of a service and a way to give back to my community than a means to make a living. But, the level of pay could keep out people who would like to be engaged in public service but need to support a family," Spilsbury said.

"The current level of compensation is acceptable, but there is room for improvement to better align with the time commitment, responsibilities and contributions we bring to our roles," Freeman wrote.

Duff wrote that the pay is "acceptable, but not equivalent to the value of my time."

"I could earn remarkably more if I spent my time in the private sector," she said. "If it paid more, we may have younger people run for office. Most of us have the luxury of other means to make ends meet."

Heredia said he felt adopting the automatic pay increases for council members proposed in the new ordinance would "ensure that the commitment required, especially for less represented communities like minorities, doesn't deter prospective representatives."